At a CoHo potluck, the topic of cob ovens came up and a southtown neighbor invited CoHoots over to see their cob oven in action.
Some CoHoots learned how to start a fire…
…while other CoHoots were busy rolling dough for pizza crusts (pizza is a favorite item to cook in a cob oven).
The fire heated up the interior oven. The exterior cob walls were cool to the touch.
Three 6″ pizzas were cooked one at a time and moved in/out with a regular pizza peel.
A circle of leftover dough was baked to make pita bread. The dough puffed up beautifully in just a few minutes. Watching it grow rapidly was very exciting!
Then it was on to the next phase of our culinary adventure–baking bread in the cob oven. The fire was stoked up and a “door” was placed over the entrance to build up the temperature.
Next step–the fire was emptied into a bucket and the oven was wiped out with a stick and rag so the baking items could be placed directly on the oven floor.
Then it was time to pop in the items to be baked and replace the door. About 45 minutes later, CoHoots and our hosts enjoyed corn, bread baked in a pan and round hearth bread. Mmmmmmmmm good!
One challenging part–it wasn’t easy to “peek” to see how the bread was baking….